SARRAT, Ilocos Norte, Feb. 21– Police Officer I Rodrigo Lapenta Jr., a young member of the patrol unit of the municipal police station (MPS) in this town, died in sleep due to apparent ‘bangungot’ or acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis in medical term, officials reported.
It was the same deadly nightmare that caused the death of the late young movie actor Rico Yan several years ago.
PO1 Jay-Ar Allado, a colleague in the patrol unit, said he noticed Lapenta was not breathing when he tried to awake him Saturday morning at his sleeping quarter in the rooftop of the MPS building here.
Allado said Lapenta went to bed after his duty on Friday night. Before that, he had a late dinner. He was in jolly mood that Friday night, Allado added.
Senior officers said an autopsy of his body was requested to rule out any doubt of foul play on his sudden death.
The cop’s cadaver was already brought to his hometown in Suyo, Ilocos Sur. He had been in the police service for more than four years and assigned at Sarrat MPS for more than a year.(tsg w/ da report)
